Comments for Monkey See...

Monkey See...: 06/08/08

P. E. Cunningham's fantasy story "Monkey See..." is the fifth story in the June issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction and one of my favorites.

"Monkey See..." works on the expectations built on knowing the rest of the expression: "monkey see, monkey do". The payoff comes quickly and satisfyingly. Here the "do" is magic and the results are both funny and disturbing.

Fortunately the last person to get done in by a monkey has the ability to fix the problem. How she fixes the problem makes for an equally satisfying end. In her interview at the FSF blog, P. E. Cunningham says that the main characters in this story were pre-existing from previous stories. I would love to read more of Ji and Shakaru's adventures.